Joe Louis h2h against other all time greats.....

If he can hit it, he can kill it. I think Louis stops Tyson, Frazier, Wlad, Vitali, Lewis, Foreman...etc. Ali has the best shot at him, but I'm not even sure of that.

 

Louis would probably go down, get right back up, coldly stare Tyson down, and procede to take him apart with precision combinations and jabs, battering a bloodied Mike to the canvas by the 10th round.

 

This

 

I would suggest that the opposite is the case.

Louis showed far greater improvement in rematches than Ali did.

Ali might have avenged his losses to Frazier and Norton, but he never realy adapted to their styles.

For contrast nobody sems to have managed anything against Louis in a rematch.

 

So there is a "real Mike Tyson" who only existed for a few fights, and the Douglas loss has nothing to do with that Mike Tyson, yet Louis is still deemed to be eminently beatable due to things that happened in fights that he won.

Louis is honestly held up to a completely different standard form fighters who came after him.

 

In all fairness, Ali was past his prime for the fights that you mentioned, and furthermore facing at least one top 10 heavyweight in Joe Frazier. Walcott was certainly a tough opponent for an aging Louis and joe beat him convincingly in the rematch.. But Jersey was not a top 10 all time great, and frankly most of Louis's rematches were when he was near prime and to lesser fighters. I will also argue that Ali DID adapt to Norton and Ali, due to that fact that most of his speed and mobility had diminished, leaving him to fight with a more flat footed style.. nevertheless, he still prevailed.

 

How one places them on a list has little to do with the actual fighter and what they bring to the table.

The Jersey Joe and Joe Frazier that stepped in the ring with Louis and Ali are going to be an equally tall order. I really couldn't argue one over the other, without splitting some very thin hairs and pretending such trivial standards exist let alone matter. Bottomline, Frazier and Walcott were two great fighters who showed up at the top of their game.

 

This may be true depending on one's perspective. But to avoid derailing the conversation on one note, I was disputing Janitor's claim that Ali adapted poorly. He was past his prime and literally had to change his fight game to beat those guys as most of his speed, timing and workrate had diminished. He succeded nonetheless. Its also a stretch to make the generalization that Louis " regularly" out performed Ali in rematches as many of his opponents included guys such as Abe Simon, Buddy Baer and Billy Conn ( at heavyweight )who were hardly the calibur of a Joe Frazier or Ken Norton.

 

In practice, there probebly isn't a lot that Ali could have done to adapt to Frazier. Given the stylistic match, there are only so many cards that he could have played.

I do feel however that he never solved the stylistic puzzle posed by Norton, and that part of this was due to his inability to adapt and bring a completely different game to the table.

 

Exactly. Once Tyson hurts Louis, it's over. Tyson was an excellent finisher--just as good as Louis or better.

I can't imagine Joe Louis getting inside the telephone pole jab of Lennox Lewis. It would prove to be a difficult task. Also, how would Louis react when he took an uppercut from Lewis? The Lewis uppercut spelled doom for Grant, Tyson, and many other opponents. He even hurt David Tua with it!! I pick Jack Dempsey to knock out Joe Louis, too. I doubt he'd survive Dempsey's early onslaught.

I think Joe Louis was good for his era. Some of his opponents were in the "bum of the month club" for a reason.

 

Yes. The Real Mike Tyson was here from 1985-1988. After knocking out Michael Spinks and firing Kevin Rooney, he was not the same fighter. The combinations, defense, accuracy and timing began to fade. Peak Tyson would not get wobbled by damn Frank Bruno. I admit that Tyson was still in his physical prime for the Douglas and Bruno fights, but he had lost focus by then.

I'm looking at these fighters at their absolute best. The best Tyson knocks out the best Louis. The best Dempsey knocks out the best Louis.

 

****in' Bum of the Month Club. That's right, because they were all worthless losers and that's all he fought. You people hurt my brain.